The 'E' Type Forum

Photo taken in the 70's.

It's a Probe 15 I think. Kit car from the late '60s

https://tinyurl.com/probe-link

It is indeed the Probe 15, almost a complete copy of the 68 Marcos Mantis powered by a Repco Brabham V8

https://collectingcars.com/articles/wed ... -mantis-xp

Hey,

I think I can say no. I must first confess I owned one of these for 32 years, so I think I am qualified, kind of.

See, there were 2 Probe 15 afaik. One of them is still alive, in Switzerland. The second one was broken up to make molds, for a Kit Car named „Concept Cars Centaur MK1“. You can easily decide which is which by looking at the doors, the Probe 15 had roof entry, the roof part slid away. The Centaur was 1-2 inches higher, and had gullwing doors and a targa roof.

Furthermore, Peter Timpson who founded and ran Concept Cars in Northampton went for covered headlights as shown here. The Probe 15 had moving headlights more like a Corvette C3.

So, what you see here, is a Concept Centaur Mk1, because it has door hinges. My car, LVV 372P, was no5 ever built (he made some 17-21 cars at all). I also owned Q 893 CVN for some 6 years. Got it for free.

All Probe 15 and Centaurs used Imp running gear. The Adams bros made 4 Probe 16, with a mighty landcrab engine, one was used in A Clockwork Orange by Kubrick, i think 3 still exist.

Here‘s a link to the most comprehensive site about this small Adams family. There‘s also a Facebook Community, a bit dormant I would say…

https://web.archive.org/web/20190112214 ... probe.com/


So, just ask if you need more info / I think I should now…



Carsten







P.S - about 32 yrs ago I invented Durango 2000 as my nick name… guess why… I was 20 back then.

Thanks guys........so much knowledge When I shot this photo in the late 70's, I had no clue what it was, just liked the composition

Hey,

I think the design polarizes. I had people loving it, and hating it.

As with many many kit cars, the problem is build quality and details. Yes and its the seventies, so don‘t expect too much there, but people tend to look with today‘s eyes, they‘re used to the build quality of normal german cars. On my Centaur, the left wing had a different hight to the right wing. The rear cover was a one piece sheet of alloy. And so on….

So, it got different reception. I guess most people recognized it as a (maybe cheap) plastic kit / and thought the beardy driver must be a lunatic, which is probably true. I mean who in todays world would drive this in modern city traffic, looking directly into the exhaust of busses and lorrys, sitting lower then bus tyres, all thst being very dangerous, in a hypercar plastic cheap thing ?

Carsten

P.S - about 32 yrs ago I invented Durango 2000 as my nick name… guess why… I was 20 back then.
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A Durango 95 was the Droogies car . Welly welly welly welly welly welly well.

Righty right ! Molokko plus….

Carsten